What Arte Isn’t Telling You

bought the team in 2003 for $184 million. According to Forbes Magazine, the Angels are now worth — are you ready? — a cool $509 million. So no matter how Arte tries to spin it, he’s hardly losing money here. In fact, he is making a ton.2. Forbes, in the same piece, rated the Angels the sixth most valuable team among the major league’s 32 franchises. Only the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Dodgers and Cubs are ranked higher in total worth.3. The team ranked directly below the Angels, the Phillies, just shelled out $120 million for Cliff Lee and currently have two other players with $100 milllion-plus contracts. Seems they are not afraid to spend the big bucks.Interesting, huh? How about this Moreno quote to the Times from last October: “It’s going to cost money, but our fans need to know that we’re committed to winning.”Well, here we are in late December, and the fans still don’t know it.Moreno is lucky. He can still save some face by going out and signing Adrian Beltre, clearly the No. 1 free agent remaining and a perfect fit at the Angels’ most vulnerable position, third base.But by failing to land Crawford in this free agent poker game, he gave Beltre’s infamous agent, Scott Boras, added leverage. Boras knows Arte and the Angels are desperate, so naturally he is nudging up the price tag on Beltre.If the Angels had gone after Beltre first, they probably could%